Getting started
What owners need to know before finishing the new dealership setup flow.
Getting started is the owner-only setup flow for a new dealership. It creates the dealership workspace and saves the minimum settings Autopilot needs before the dashboard can be used properly.
Most choices can be changed later. The important part is adding enough structure for deals, team access, and alerts to work.
Who uses it
Owners use this flow to create or resume dealership setup.
Managers, business managers, admins, and salespeople use a separate welcome flow after they accept an invite. That flow sets up their own profile, not the dealership.
Required setup
1. Name the dealership
Enter the legal dealership name. Add a trading name only if customers know the dealership by a different name.
When this step is saved, Autopilot creates the dealership, makes you the owner, sets it as your active dealership, and seeds the default field options needed by new deals.
2. Create sales channels
Sales channels are the groups your deals belong to, usually brands, yards, or business lines.
Each channel must have:
- a name
- at least one department
- at least one vehicle condition
- deal-numbering defaults
If a channel matches a known vehicle make, Autopilot registers that make for the dealership.
You must add at least one sales channel before continuing.
3. Choose default alerts
Default alerts highlight sales-log cells when something needs attention. The selected rules become the dealership defaults for sales-log views.
The suggested defaults include checks such as duplicate VINs, missing VINs, missing stock numbers, delivered deals that are not invoiced, and delivered deals that are not profiled.
Optional setup
Logo
Upload a logo if you have one ready. Autopilot accepts PNG, JPEG, SVG, and WebP files up to 5 MB.
You can skip this and add or replace the logo later.
Team invites
Invite people who need access. Each invite needs a full name, email address, and role.
Roles available during setup are Salesperson, Business manager, Admin, and Manager.
You can skip this and invite people later from Dashboard -> Settings -> Team.
After setup
When setup is complete, Autopilot marks the dealership as onboarded and sends you to the dashboard. If billing still needs attention, the final button opens billing first.
The dashboard checklist points to the next settings most teams refine:
- Profile: dealership name, customer-facing details, logo, and accent colour
- Channels: sales channels, departments, deal numbering, and vehicle conditions
- Team: invites and team access
- Rules: sales-log alert rules
- Targets: sales, profile, revenue, and gross-profit targets
- Catalogue: the vehicle models and options your dealership sells
Troubleshooting
If you leave during setup, Autopilot resumes from the in-progress dealership the next time you return to onboarding.
If you cannot continue from sales channels, check that you have added at least one channel and saved any channel you started editing.
If an invite fails, check that the person has a full name, a valid email address, and is not already an active member of the dealership.